The most exciting news for this release is that Status Shuffle Lite will now let you shuffle 1500 times (up from 150 times), which should allow you to enjoy Status Shuffle, for free, for a long time.

Another way to access Status Shuffle for free is through our new mobile website (read our announcement). You can easily add the website to your homepage, and it will look and behave similarly to the full app:

Click on the browser’s Share icon (on iOS7 this looks like a box with an upwards arrow)

Click Add to Home Screen

Click “Add” at the top/right of the screen

You will now see a Status Shuffle icon on your home screen!

Creating a Status Shuffle app by adding the Status Shuffle mobile website to your home screen

Although the full iPhone app has advantages over the mobile website such as offline shuffling, better speed and a more refined look, the mobile website it a great substitute for casual Status Shuffle users.

Over the last few years, we’ve noticed a big shift to mobile Facebook consumption. These days, more and more people access Facebook through their phone. The Status Shuffle iPhone app has been a great solution for iPhone users. But what about Android?

Today we’re taking the first step in addressing the needs of our Android users by releasing a mobile optimized Status Shuffle website. The website, which works on Android 2.3+ (as well as the iPhone), features many of the same features of the iPhone app, and runs right in your browser.

For Android 4+ users, we recommend that you use Google Chrome to access the Status Shuffle website, as it will give you a faster experience with less visual quirks.

Let us know what you think! As always, if you find a bug or if you experience any technical difficulties, please contact our support team.

Status Shuffle for iPhone celebrates its 2nd birthday today! Status Shuffle for iPhone first appeared in the App Store on February 7, 2011.

A lot has changed in the world since the app first launched: iPad2, iPhone 4S, iPad3, iPad mini, iPhone 5, iPad 4, iPod Touch5, iOS4.3, iOS 5, iOS 6, the arab spring, the tsunami in Japan, hurricane Sandy the Olympics and the birth of at least 260 million people.

Status Shuffle for iPhone has also changed. Not as much as the rest of the world but we are proud of the progress. Some of the changes that really stick out in our minds include:

Vastly improved the user experience design so that it’s much easier to use

Swapped the graphic design for one that is more mature and pleasant to look at

Added VoiceOver support so that people with low vision or who are blind can use the app

Supported all the new devices and OSes that Apple launched

Supported all the changes to their APIs that Facebook introduced

In celebration of Status Shuffle for iPhone’s 2nd birthday, we are going to offer the app for free all day today (February 7, 2013) in the iOS App Store. So don’t miss out on your big chance!

Its already scheduled with Apple. And, according to our research, the time it goes free is relative to your time zone. So, in other words, it should be midnight to midnight for everyone around the globe. Cool!

We are trying out a new feature on Status Shuffle on Facebook that we call the Imagizer. (Note this is only a test, so its not available on the iPhone or the mobile web yet).

The imagizer lets you put a status on a background and post it as an image to your Facebook timeline.

Here is what it looks like:

The Imagizer: Lets you place a status on a background picture

You can access the imagizer two ways. First you can click the new Images tab at the top of Status Shuffle.

Ways to get to the Imagizer

Next, while setting a status, you can click the new Make an Image button on the Set Status popup.

Create an image from a Status Shuffle status

When clicking the images tab, the Imagizer will appear as a blank canvas to let your wild imagination freely create amazing statuses. Clicking the Make an Image button populates the image with the selected status. But you can still edit it if you want.

We beta trialed this in the UK for about 2 weeks in January 2013 and opened it to the world on January 29. If people like it, we will keep it for longer. However, right now we are just trialing it to see what people think of it. Its going to be up until, at least, February 15, 2013. So, if you like it, let us know. Or better yet, get all your friends to use it 🙂

You know the competitive jewel matching game that Social Graph Studios has been building for the last year? If you think that its Jewels x2, then you would be wrong. We are changing the name.

Why? Good question.

Jewels x2 was originally chosen to communicate the following messages:

It’s a jewel matching game

Players play against each other

The problem is that, with the exception of one person, Jewels x2 was not loved. Most people did not understand that ‘x2’ meant head-to-head multiplayer. Though, once it was explained to them or they saw the game, understanding game easily and quickly. Additionally, I think, it didn’t really sound fun. And who wants to play a game that doesn’t sound fun?

Well, if you look at the stats, it turns out that we were getting a reasonable click through rate on our ads in the beta trial, so I guess lots of people. The visual elements of the ad may have been a larger factor than the name of the game, but we weren’t sure. So we decided to run some tests.

We decided to test out a few different names and see how people responded. After a brainstorming session we came up with these names (shown in no particular order):

Jewels x2 (original huh?)

Jewel Rivals

Jewel Duel

Gem Clash

Jewel Feud

We tested the names by inviting people to join our beta test program. The only difference between the invites was the name of the game. To be counted as a vote for the name, people had to provide their email address.

The winner won in all categories:

Click Through Rate

Total Clicks

Cost

Conversion Rate

Total Conversions

All told, the winner scored 26% higher than the runner up.

So who is the winner?

First, I was most surprised at the runner up. Jewels x2. It actually scored 13% higher than third place. So Jewels x2 was not so bad a name after all.

And second, Jewel Duel was last. By a lot. Not sure why. Maybe people don’t like internal rhyming.

Finally, the winner is (drum roll please) – Gem Clash. We hope you like it. Actually, we are counting on you liking it. 😉

We are working on logos, trademarks, domain names, changing the name of the game in the code, and modifying all the key art, etc. We’ll post up the new logo as soon as it’s complete.

Social Graph Studios is pleased to announce the public launch of Jewels x2 today, December 31, 2012 with the deployment of release 1.0.

Jewels x2 extends the jewel matching game genre by adding real-time multiplayer game action. Players play head to head on the same board at the same time. Jewels x2 is highly social; players can challenge their friends or be matched with players they have not met.

“Jewels x2 is designed to maximize fun and excitement. It’s frenetic and thrilling. We had a vision of building an amped up jewel matching game that leverages our understanding of social technology. We are very proud of our work,” said Oz Solomon, CEO of Social Graph Studios.

Timed Game – Games now last 90 seconds. The player with the most points after 90 seconds wins the game.

Friend Bar – Players will see their friends directly in the friend bar at the bottom of the screen. This allows players to more easily challenge each other and compare their rankings against each other.

Improved Look and Feel – Many of the dialogs and popups in the game have been restyled to look better and be easier to use. The most notable change is the Score screen that players see at the end of the game.

Bug Fixes – Many bugs have been fixed and the overall stability of the platform has been greatly improved.

“Social Graph Studios has great plans for Jewels x2. Look for us to start our marketing campaign early in 2013,” added Solomon.

We are thrilled to announce that the game we have been working on, Jewels x2, has gone into public beta.

Its free to play and a lot of fun. You can try it out at:

http://apps.facebook.com/jewelsxtwo?from=sgsblog

Jewels x2 introduces multiplayer into jewel matching games. Players play at the same time and on the same board as their opponents. True head to head gameplay. Its frantic, wild and a silly amount of fun.

Here is a teaser video showing what game play looks like:

We have big plans for this game. Let us know what you think. We would love to hear your feedback.

According to the Facebook App Center Tutorial, you can have your app center page deliver a layout with landscape screenshots. However, they don’t give you any hints as to what landscape means. And, if any of your shots are not ‘landscape’, you get the standard portrait version.

We were working on the App Center page for My Year in Status (which will shortly be updated for 2012 – in the meantime, please use Status Collage which is not tied to any specific year). Through some experimentation, we were able to get the landscape layout.

The area provided for the larger thumbnail is 315w * 215h and calculated the aspect ratio which is 1.3125:1. To verify that, we created a screen shot with red bars around the outside (1 px wide) then uploaded it. It was 437w * 333h with an aspect ratio of 1.312:1. It appeared with red bars around it in full glory.

Here is what it looks like:

For kicks, weI tried uploading one with a slightly different aspect ratio. It was 438:320 or 1.369:1. It still appeared with the landscape format, however the bars at the sides were clipped off.

The smaller screenshots thumbnails are 155w * 110h which works out to an aspect ratio of 1.409:1. Though we haven’t tried putting red bars around the images to verify.